We need to collaborate more within our teams, with our managers and with our customers. Books like Gamestorming (David Gray) and Innovation Games (Luke Hohmann) or websites like GoGameStorm.com and InnovationGames.com foster fresh practices for facilitating innovations when gathering in meetings or workshops with others. Last week-end I took part in a Gamestorming Retreat at The Hub Vienna.
Like a Code Retreat the Gamestorming Retreat is a day-long, intensive event focusing on enhancing your skills as a facilitator using the practices mentioned above. It is not about getting to know those practices, but rather to intensify on how to use and practice those while getting lots of feedback from the other participants.
The event in Vienna was facilitated by Michael Lausegger (@michael_lausser ) and Clemens Böge (@Beraterei_Boege), the about 12 participants came from different areas. The common theme for this Retreat was Team Development.
After the warm-up, Clemens and Michael shortly described the theory on one flip chart only:
What followed was practicing this theory in three rounds with three practices:
- Line-Up (Open)
- Marshmellow Challenge (Explore)
- Circles & Soup (Close)
I used and played all of the practices already before in workshops and retrospectives; still it was awesome to watch how others were facilitating and how different improvisations of the practice lead to different results or problems.
The Gamestorming Retreat Vienna was a great experience: It is helpful for everyone who wants to train her facilitation skills in Gamestorming and who wants to share her experiences with other facilitators.
If I was not living in Munich, I would definitely visit the next Retreat. Actually I’m thinking about organizing a Gamestroming Retreat in Munich. If you are interested, please contact me.
BTW: My team won the Marshmellow Challenge! 🙂
. @p_roessler beweist klasse risikomanagement und gewinnt #marshmallowchallenge #gamestorming twitter.com/VieMuc/status/…
— Angela Fürstberger (@VieMuc) April 6, 2013